Kingston

Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. The city was founded in July 1692 across the harbor from Port Royal, which had been destroyed by an earthquake. Kingston was built on a grid system to facilitate commerce, and it grew to become one of the largest cities in the country; in 1872, after over a hundred years of lobbying, the government finally moved the capital of Jamaica from Spanish Town to Kingston. During the 1970s, a decline in economic conditions led to parts of the city becoming crime-ridden and poor, and the conservative Jamaica Labor Party ousted the socialist People's National Party from power around the same time in hopes of creating a market-oriented economy. In 2011, Kingston had a metropolitan area population of 662,426 people.